On Tuesday, Vice President Dick Cheney presided over a ceremony to name a new aircraft carrier after recently deceased former President Gerald R Ford. With all the subtlety of a charging elephant, Cheney used his speech to extol virtues in Ford that some have labeled as vices in George W Bush.

"[Ford] didn't shrink from a tough call. In such a moment, even with a popular choice in plain view and the easy path laid straight out in front of him, President Ford asked only what was right for the United States of America, and acted accordingly. When criticism came, he kept his head about him, focused on his job, and persevered. History looks favorably on such a man, and President Ford's reputation has, indeed, grown even greater in the three decades since he left this city."

Cheney's attempt to make an analogy to the present day is obvious. Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly think Bush should lift his head up and reverse course on Iraq rather than send in more troops as he currently proposes. They believe the president is both stubborn and misguided. A bipartisan group of political elders and Bush's own generals have also urged him to change course, to no avail.

But Bush and Cheney have made it clear that they will not be deterred by public opinion. They answer only to history, which will vindicate them, conveniently, after they are dead. In addition to responding to critics of their Iraq policy, the vice president may have also felt the need to rescue Bush from the inevitable and unflattering comparisons drawn by establishment Washington during its long goodbye to the former president.

Yet it is Cheney himself who inadvertently offers the most damning comparison between Ford and Bush. In a speech in 1986, Cheney described the qualities he admired in Ford, the president under whom he served as chief of staff. Today, Cheney's description reads almost like the profile of an anti-George W Bush.

"[Ford] was a man who was able to sit down and listen to debates. He never cut off an individual's access because that person disagreed with him. He relished the give and take of political dialogue. I think that's very important," Cheney said. "His knowledge and grasp of government and political issues was just enormous."

In the end, it is action without wisdom that separates Bush's decisiveness from that of Ford.